


Land of the Dead

by MegumitheGreat



Series: What I think would be in the next Kingdom Hearts [2]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, Kingdom Hearts 3 spoilers, One Shot, What-If, coco - Freeform, one shot series, post-game spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 17:23:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17729534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegumitheGreat/pseuds/MegumitheGreat
Summary: In their search to bring Sora back, Riku and King Mickey travel to the Land of the Dead.





	Land of the Dead

**Author's Note:**

> Right, so first--I did minimal proofing. KH3 left me in disbelief and a couple of friends and I were talking about what worlds would be included next, and BY GOD NOMURA, ADD COCO OR HIRE ME TO ADD COCO. This one shot is based on a theory I have on the secret movie, and yeah, I haven't thought it through completely, but LISTEN. You know what I'm talking about with all this. Considering I went with the formula most used in KH3 of regurgitating the movie and adding the KH characters in there, the descriptions of events and stuff from Coco would have just been redundant. Also I was way more interested in what a fight between Ernesto and Riku would be like. So, it's not perfect or even remotely good. I AM working on some art for the final boss, so there's that. Anywho, I'll stop rambling.
> 
> Apologies for any mistakes in my Spanish. I took it for 5 years in school, and I have not used it in 5 years.
> 
> Hey, so don't be a fucking ass in the comments.

When Riku drew near to the festive-looking world wrapped in spicy color and moonlight, he couldn’t help but appreciate the view. Painted skulls and multicolored sombreros decorated the world, and at its poles were two different cities that piqued his interest. One was a modest little town with handmade decorations and a strange crypt at the center. The other was a vibrant upward city with flying creatures all around.

“Gosh, that world looks fun!” Mickey laughed. “Lucky for us, our journey has brought us here, hasn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Riku agreed. “There’s got to be a clue to finding Sora here.” His normally stoic face hardened somewhat. “He’s got to be here.”

Mickey sympathized with the youth. In the time that it had taken them to finally reunite with their friends to take on the darkness, Sora and his best friends Riku and Kairi had been struggling to find each other. Kairi was able to share a paopu with the Keyblade wielder, but it seemed that as soon as they did, they were separated once again.

The King pressed the button to beam them down to the world at the most convenient entry point. It took no time at all to enter the new world, specifically at the point between the vibrant city and the modest town. It was night time, candles and flowers dotting the graveyard behind them. Families upon families were visiting graves, but the stranger part was…Riku and Mickey saw ghostly skeletons. They were grabbing bread and cookies and bottles of beer or juice left on their graves then walking around. Some of them would watch the babies and toddlers and cry at how cute they were. Others would take pride that the family business was doing well. There was one family that wasn’t participating. Instead, they were worried and searching.

“ _Miguel! Miguel!_ ” the father called out.

Riku wanted to know what was going on, but he and Mickey had a mission. Whatever problem it was, they couldn’t get caught up in the affairs of the world they were visiting. The young Keyblade Master took a few steps before realizing that they weren’t walking on concrete. He looked down. Around his feet, billions of marigold petals danced around like the waves of the ocean. He knelt to them, picking up handfuls and watching them blow away with a gentle breeze.

“A bridge…? Made of flowers…?” he said.

“Riku, look,” Mickey called him.

The skeletons that were walking along the bridge were similar to the ones picking items off the graves. The only difference was that they were tangible. Things were getting stranger and stranger, and they couldn’t help but feel that they were on the right track to where they needed to be.

They walked along the bridge of marigolds to what seemed to be the equivalent of a customs line in an airport. Skeletons were checking in and showing the items they brought back while a few lanes in the opposite direction, skeletons were being scanned via computers. Black and white photos of what they looked like when they were alive flashed on the screens, and the patrol officers smiled at them and sent them on their way.

“Uh-oh, we might have some trouble,” Mickey quietly told his friend.

“Looks like it,” Riku confirmed. “We’re going to have a hard time getting in like this.”

“We’ve got to find a disguise.”

“Where are we going to find that?”

“Oh…good point…”

Before they could come up with a proper solution to the problem, a portal of darkness opened up and a horde of Heartless crawled out. At first, no one noticed. When a Heartless approached the customs officer, he let out a shriek before yelling something out in Spanish.

The skeletons returning to the city threw their possessions into the air, flying into a panic that Riku hadn’t expected of dead people. He summoned his Keyblade, and alongside Mickey, he was raring to fight.

Thankfully, the Heartless were only Shadows and Soldiers. Riku was far more powerful, so much that single swipe of his weapon defeated five or six of them. Mickey used his light magic to get rid of another four. Then five Rabid Dogs appeared.

Riku lifted his Keyblade. “Thundaga!” he called out, striking the entire wave with a fearsome lightning bolt. It got rid of all the Heartless without forcing either the King or his friend to break a sweat. They willed their Keyblades away.

“ _¡Ay, que miedo!_ ” the skeletons sighed and cried.

That was when Riku got the idea to use their quick-thinking as their ticket in. Taking the credit for defending the population from a sudden attack, they were hailed as heroes…but they weren’t allowed into the city.

“You are… _cómo se dice_ …alive,” one of the patrols slowly said. “We’ve only had one other incident like you, but his family has taken him to the Department of Family Reunions.”

“Department of Family Reunions…?” Mickey repeated, though unsure of how they could get around the gatekeeping.

“W-We do have family here!” Riku suddenly said. “We…we somehow ended up like this, but we have family inside that can help us!”

The patrol looked dubiously at the silver-haired youth before stamping a visa for him and allowing the two through. “Hope you can find them but remember! You have until sunrise!”

After passing through that gate, Riku and Mickey stared at the patrol’s back for just a moment before walking deeper into the city. Mickey was nothing short of amazed with how Riku had managed to get them in, and the latter couldn’t bring himself to mention that he was referring to Sora. The King’s eyes reflected his sympathy.

“Aw, I’m sure Sora will be right as rain when we find him!” he smiled. “He may have disappeared, but I doubt he would be a skeleton.”

Riku appreciated that he was trying to cheer him up. They continued through the Land of the Dead, awestruck at all the buildings and lights and decorations. There was no time to dawdle, though. They began their search for Sora.

The duo split to cover more ground. Riku asked around if they had seen a boy that looked like him—specifically living—but he only got unsure or confused looks. Mickey didn’t have any luck either. When they reconvened just before one of the numerous plazas, they shared their disappointment. The music echoing from the plaza behind them pulled their attention, and Riku noticed that the skeleton onstage looked very different from the others. A skeleton around the age of twelve that seemed a little too meaty to be dead and a truly dead and lanky skeleton were performing together. The comedic sight made him think about Sora until the name he had heard earlier wrenched him out of his thoughts.

“Miguel! Miguel!” an older woman with a dominating appearance called. She had with her a large mysterious creature. Part dragon, part ram, and part large cat of some sort.  
Riku and the King quickly moved away, believing that the woman was the one who was commanding the Heartless. But the creature didn’t look like it had been taken over by darkness. In fact, it was akin to a neon fluorescent sign.

The creature sniffed the ground, following into the plaza after them. A pair of identical skeletons on the other side of the crowd during the performance asked to be on the lookout for a living boy. It was clear that the two outsiders were in a bind with no disguise to help them. With the shining creature closing in, and the patrol looking for someone living, they knew they wouldn’t have a choice. They had to meet with one or the other. That is, until the Heartless struck once again.

At this point the performance onstage had finished, but the boy that had been singing and playing guitar ran off amidst the chants for an encore that descended into screams of terror. The creature that had been sniffing the ground for a trail looked up at the monsters. It roared at them before finding a living boy with a Keyblade in the shape of a car key. A living boy—he didn’t look like the one that it was sent to seek, but perhaps he would know more about the one it wanted. Riku and Mickey were ready for battle against the Heartless, yet the creature circled around them.

“Company!” Mickey announced.

“We can deal with it later,” Riku said. “We’ve got to take care of the Heartless!”

Riku charged toward the horde while the creature pounced towards him. Mickey yelped out of surprise, casting his thunder magic to cull the herd. The silver-haired wielder slashed away at the enemies, dodging the shining creature as best as he could. When he had defeated enough of them, he used the dark magic that only he had learned to control.

“Dark Firaga!” he called out at balls of black fire burst from his gloved hand and into a crowd of Heartless.

The creature came to a screeching halt; this was a power far beyond its own.

“What were those?” one of the skeletons that had been talking to a patrol asked.

Riku and Mickey used the confusion to escape backstage for the boy that had been singing only to find the lanky skeleton alone and holding a photo of young man. He had a dirty worn straw hat and blazer vest, yet his black hair and goatee were as full as the man’s in the photo.

“ _Ay, Dios mió_ , that kid…I mean, he lied to me!” the skeleton grumbled. “Sure, I know Ernesto de la Cruz, and it’s not like I didn’t tell him it would be hard to meet him, but that kid _has_ family. I don’t get why he has to see de la Cruz.”

“Um,” Riku uttered.

“I just…all I asked for was to put my photo up on someone’s _ofrienda_ , but he wants me to take him to de la Cruz and then leaves me!” the skeleton went on.

“Oh dear,” Mickey sighed.

“Well, I could try the Frida Kahlo disguise again.”

Riku crossed his arms, perplexed, and cleared his throat. The skeleton seemed startled out of his thoughts, and he turned around slowly. He was taken aback, even mystified, that there was a second living boy…and a living three-foot-tall mouse.

“Uh, _hola_ ,” the skeleton sheepishly greeted.

“Hi,” Riku replied.

“Let me guess, you two also are related to Ernesto de la Cruz, and you need to get his blessing to return the Land of the Living.”

Riku lowered his arms. He denied that was their reason for running into him. “We’re looking for a friend,” he explained. He started to pull out the gummiphone, but Mickey stopped him. Showing the skeleton the device would disrupt the world order, and if they wanted to find Sora, they had to rock the boat as little as possible.

“So, what does your friend look like?” the skeleton asked somewhat harshly. “ _Gordito_ like you?”

“Possibly,” Riku quickly answered. “He’s…I’m not sure what happened to him, but it’s like he’s vanished. Even now, I can feel him fading from my heart.”

The skeleton’s expression softened. He looked down at the photo in his hands then back at Riku. He tucked the photo into the tears of his blazer and spaces of his ribs.  
“You think he’s being forgotten, huh,” the skeleton said dejectedly. He straightened his hat. “Alright, _amigo_ , how about this?” he said rather cheerily, very different from before. “If I help you find your friend, will you help me find the other living boy? His name is Miguel, about yea-tall.”

“That sounds like a great idea!” Mickey happily agreed. He put out a hand. “I’m Mickey Mouse, and this is Riku. We can definitely help you out.”

“Yeah,” Riku nodded. “Where did he go off to…uh…”

“You can call me Héctor. As for the kid, he ran off to Ernesto de la Cruz’s big fancy-schmancy party.” Héctor pointed to a large glowing tower painted pink and gold with flood lights swinging around the bottom. “The problem with that is that only the contest winners and those with invitations can get in.”

Riku and Mickey were visibly let down with the conditions, but Héctor nudged their chins up with a finger each. He had something of conniving smirk as he pulled out a costume. Pulling over a multicolored dress, replacing his hat and hair with a woman’s floral updo, removing his goatee for a unibrow, Héctor had transformed into the famous artist Frida Kahlo. He then revealed he had two extra costumes.

“I am _not_ wearing that,” Riku disgruntledly said.

“How do you plan to get into Ernesto de la Cruz’s penthouse then?” Héctor asked with his arms crossed over his ribs. He heightened his voice to sound more like a woman. Riku and Mickey looked at each other. Surely, he had to have some other disguise, but Héctor nonchalantly said he didn’t. “Listen, Frida Kahlo herself has twenty clones. Three more won’t make a difference!”

“We look nothing like her!”

“ _Oyenme, amigos_ , trust me,” Héctor stressed. “The security up there is tight. You don’t look like a couple of history enthusiasts, but everyone loves Frida Kahlo. Just gotta be her for five minutes!”

Mickey turned to Riku. “Looks like we don’t have much of a choice, and the more time we waste, the harder it’ll be to find Sora,” he reasoned.

Riku reluctantly agreed. Héctor quickly helped the youth and the King into the costumes then led them to the triple decker lift that would take them up to Ernesto’s penthouse. True to what the master of disguise had said, everyone in the area had been starstruck, and the obvious dissimilarities to Frida herself seemed to be ignored both at the boarding station and on the lift itself.

Héctor gave a brief rundown after Riku asked him about the boy that had been on stage. When they learned that Miguel had been looking for Ernesto to receive his musician’s blessing to return to the Land of the Living, they couldn’t help but feel something was strange. Of course, Héctor agreed, especially when he told them that he had just learned that the boy had other family that he could have gone to—the only problem was that they would not give him their blessing to be a musician.

“Not allowing someone to follow their heart…” Riku said. “I understand why he would lie.” Héctor frowned, but he admitted he hadn’t thought of it that way.

“‘May your heart be your guiding key.’ It’s our motto,” Mickey explained.

“Hm, has a nice ring to it,” Héctor said.

“Yup! I think if Miguel and you and his family all talked, an understanding could be reached—I’m sure of it!”

“That’s if that kid will talk. He’s been running from them since he got here apparently.”

When they had arrived at the penthouse’s entrance, Riku and Mickey got rid of the disguises, this time pretending to be Frida’s bodyguards as they entered its foyer. The party had ended some time ago, and walking down one of the massive halls, they spotted a living boy with Mexico’s biggest musical sensation Ernesto de la Cruz.

“There you are,” Héctor said rather seriously. Riku and Mickey followed behind him, watching him throw off the disguise then reaching into his ribs for the photograph. “Miguel, please,” he almost begged.

Miguel backed into Ernesto, who asked if he knew this skeleton. “I only just met him tonight,” the boy answered.

“I need you to put my photo on an _ofrienda_ ,” Héctor pleaded. “Miguel, I’m being forgotten; I won’t last the night.”

Riku and Mickey felt sorry for the lanky skeleton, but as Ernesto approached him and took the photo to examine, they noticed the Heartless perched on banisters. The two watched and listened closely, their eyes stuck on the Heartless more than the trio of skeletons.

“You’re being forgotten,” Ernesto said.

“And whose fault is that?!” Héctor accused.

“Héctor, please, let’s talk about this.”

“You stole my songs! We were a team, but you stole my songs _and_ my guitar, and you got famous on them!”

“You really did play together…” Miguel gasped.

“The only reason I’m being forgotten is because you never told anyone that I wrote them!” Héctor concluded.

“I never meant to take credit,” Ernesto said. “We were a great team, but you died, and…and I only sang your songs to help keep you alive.”

“Oh, give me a break.” Héctor walked towards the exit. “Ernesto, I didn’t come here to argue. I just want you to make things right. Miguel promised to put my photo up, and then I can cross over. I can see my girl. You know, we’re like heaven and earth.”

“Like the movie?” Miguel spoke which made everyone increasingly suspicious. “That’s a line from the movie…”

Héctor’s eyes grew wide. Miguel ran through the plot of the movie, and the lanky skeleton remembered his demise. The argument that angered Ernesto, and the horrible pain in Héctor’s stomach before he collapsed; he thought he had died of food poisoning, but in reality, it was a regular poisoning. As he threw himself at Ernesto, the Heartless crawled from the banisters. Riku and Mickey summoned their Keyblades.

As if on cue, Ernesto’s guards burst into the hall, removing Héctor from the premises as their boss stuffed the photo into his flashy suit. Wisps of darkness fluttered from his shoulders, and Miguel knew something was wrong. Or rather, things were beginning to become much clearer.

“I’m sorry you had to see all that Miguel, but you see, I seized the moment and did what had to be done,” Ernesto solemnly told him.

“But Héctor was your friend!” Miguel combatted.

“And you are my family, _mijo_.”

The Heartless descended on Riku, Mickey, and Miguel. The Keyblade wielders had to protect the boy, and even as they fought back against the Heartless, more and more just replaced them. Gargoyles and Rabid Dogs and even ones they had never seen before surrounded them. If Miguel got hurt, he would turn into one himself, and Héctor would lose any chance of being rescued.

“We’ve got to get that photo!” Riku said.

But no matter what, they couldn’t catch Ernesto de la Cruz. The musical fraud walked away, and if the Heartless couldn’t defeat them, the guards did by taking advantage of the chaos. Miguel was the first to be captured. Then Mickey. Finally, after fighting so hard, Riku was dragged away to a giant pit high above the Land of the Dead just outside of the penthouse. The three of them were thrown into crystal clear water that could only exist in the plane of death.

They swam to a rocky shore, where Héctor sat while hugging his bony knees. He seemed exhausted, prompting Miguel to rush up to him and hug him. Riku watched them, watched how Héctor’s bones glowed gold like the flowers as he fell over. While the two comforted each other—subsequently realizing that they were family—Riku wondered if his friend was somewhere stumbling around. But he wasn’t being forgotten, was he? He would never forget Sora, so was he being forgotten, or was Riku being forgotten? His heart ached. He wasn’t falling over like Héctor, but he definitely felt like something was in the promise of being erased.

“We’re running out of time,” Héctor groaned.

“We’ve got to get back to Ernesto de la Cruz!” Miguel said. “I won’t forgive him for what he did to my family!” He turned to the hole in the ceiling. “You hear that, Ernesto?! Héctor is my family!”

“And Miguel is my family!” Héctor called out alongside his great-great-grandson.

The two musicians let out a soul-rousing trill, and like an answered prayer, the creature from before and a shining flying dog named Dante. From the back of the larger shining beast, the intimidating woman looked down. When everyone had been rescued from the hole, she took her shoe and threatened to hit Héctor. Miguel stopped her.

“Miguel, this man is not our family!” she professed. “He abandoned this family, left me alone with a child to chase music!”

“Imelda,” Héctor uttered.

“Don’t you ‘Imelda’ me! You think I’m going to let you waltz back into this family now that Miguel has found you? Pah!”

“Mamá Imelda, wait!” Miguel interrupted. “You don’t have to forgive Papá Héctor, but…”

The lanky skeleton hid behind his hat before his bones glowed gold again. He felt to his knees before her pitifully. Imelda gasped.

“He’s being forgotten,” Riku told her. “And if he’s forgotten, he won’t be able to see his family—your family. His heart will disappear.”

“Who are you?” Imelda asked warily.

“These are the guys that helped me find Miguel,” Héctor explained as he introduced them.

“Ernesto de la Cruz sent these monsters after me when we figured out that he murdered him. He’s still got his photo; we’ve got to get it back and put it on the _ofrienda_ ,” Miguel pressured.

“If you think I’m letting this scoundrel on our _ofrienda_ , you must be mad,” Imelda said.

“And if you don’t put his photo up, Mamá Coco will forget him!”

Imelda went silent. She loved her daughter Coco as much as Héctor did. She wasn’t willing to tear the family apart knowing that she was the last link to him. The intimidating matriarch of Miguel’s family swallowed her pride.

Riku approached her, determination in his bright teal eyes. “I know what it feels like to be betrayed, but I also know what it feels like to forgive. I betrayed the person I cared about most, and he forgave me. Even if you don’t forgive, forgetting is a lot more painful than you think,” he calmly told her.

Imelda looked at Héctor, whose shambling bones glowed gold once again as he winced in agony. “It isn’t right, is it. It’s not right to force Coco to forget her father if he was forbidden to come back,” she said regretfully. “Alright, everyone, get on Pepita.” She glared at the illuminated amphitheater. “We’ve got a murderer to catch.”

Imelda took the reigns on her _alebrije_. Miguel, Riku, and Mickey sat behind her. Héctor was left to hang onto its tail. While the beast flew to the amphitheater, Dante flew next them. Soaring through the light-speckled skies, they reached their destination in no time.

Ernesto de la Cruz was preparing for his show while the real Frida Kahlo’s opener captivated the audience. They had a plan with all the other aunts and uncles that had passed away. They had to find the murderer, steal back the photo, and send Miguel home with a petal and the family blessing. Riku and Mickey were tasked with stopping anyone that got in the way. They split into two teams with the Keyblade wielders taking out any and all Heartless they stumbled upon. Imelda led her family to retribution only to accidentally bump into Ernesto de la Cruz. When he tried to place her face, she didn’t hesitate to take her shoe and hit his skull so hard that it spun on its axis.

“That’s for killing the love of my life!” she snapped at him.

Héctor peeked from around the corner backstage. “I’m the love of your life?” he asked with a hopeful smile.

“I don’t know, I’m still angry at you!”

Ernesto immediately recognized his victim, but Imelda hit him again.

“And that’s for trying to murder my grandson!”

Miguel emerged from the corner with a triumphant stance. The photo was still in Ernesto’s pocket, but before anyone could grab it, he turned around and fled. He ordered his security to help him, though they were busy testing the party favors. Riku and Mickey circled around, rejoining the Rivera family in their chase. The aunts and uncles stopped to hold off guards that followed Ernesto’s orders, leaving Imelda to take matters into her own hands. Ernesto jumped onto the lift to the stage.

“He’s getting away!” Miguel panicked.

“Oh, no he’s not!” Imelda reassured. She leapt onto the lift with Ernesto, who ran under the darkness to safety behind a few more guards.

The spotlight turned on her. She stood before tens of thousands of skeletons all waiting to hear Ernesto sing. Riku, Mickey, Héctor, and Miguel climbed the stairs to the stage, where the guards and Ernesto circled around her. The crowd waited with anticipation.

“Sing, Mamá Imelda!” Miguel told her from the stairs. The woman nervously approached the microphone, letting out one note at a time. Her grandson, thinking on his feet, hurried over to a rack of guitars. He threw one to Héctor then set him up with a microphone. “Seize the moment, Héctor!”

The dead couple performed, accruing a louder applause than Ernesto de la Cruz had ever received. He threatened to attack her onstage for being more popular than him, which Riku and Mickey were quick to sabotage.

“You’re done with this family,” Riku threatened.

“That’s right, we’re not letting you tear them apart again,” Mickey followed.

“You think you can stop me?” Ernesto hissed. “Do you know who I am? I am Ernesto de la Cruz, the greatest musician to ever live!”

The darkness in Ernesto’s heart flared, calling from skies a Heartless called Cu. It was a strange mix of different birds with the body of a wolf, its tail and wings on fire and marigolds all around. Riku and Mickey readied themselves. Ernesto leapt onto the Heartless’s back, and he guided it to collide with them. Riku dodged out of the way. He slid up the banister of the stair set onstage then launched himself at the Heartless. He slashed at him, the momentum of his swings keeping him up in the air. Cu somersaulted in the sky, beating its wings so that strong gusts blew him back down to the stage. Ernesto stood on the Heartless with his guitar. He strummed its strings to send out soundwaves that urged Cu to spin like a torpedo into Riku. While he sustained damage, Mickey healed him with his Curaga spell almost immediately before shooting balls of light at the flying Heartless.

“That guitar’s controlling it!” Riku observed. He changed targets; if he could knock Ernesto off its back and break the guitar, the Heartless would hold still just long enough to slay it. He fired his Dark Firaga spell with the hope that he could throw Ernesto off-balance.

Thankfully, the musician fell from his Heartless onto the stage, and Riku snatched away his guitar infused with his darkness. He smashed it to bits on the ground, which in turn brought the Cu Heartless cascading as if its wings had been clipped. Mickey used pillars of light to finish it off while his comrade fought off Ernesto. And when the musician had had his fill of fisticuffs, he tried to go after the reunited family. Before he got a chance to lay a finger on Miguel, Pepita stopped in front of him. Imelda nonchalantly walked up to him, yanked the photo from his breast pocket, then commanded with a simple whistle that the _alebrije_ fling him across the sea of audience members up to a belfry in the center of the city. The impact from the collision weakened the hinges, and just as Ernesto had died in the Land of the Living, he pseudo-perished with a heavy golden bell crushing him.  
Miguel let out a resounding trill, and Héctor would have too if he hadn’t become so weak from being forgotten. Riku and Mickey joined him and Imelda by his side.

“We’re out of time,” Héctor coughed.

“No, you can’t give up!” Miguel begged him. Imelda gave him the photo. “Papá Héctor, you have to hang on! I’ll put your photo on my _ofrienda_ , just hold on a little longer!” He turned to Imelda. “Mamá Imelda, please, I need your blessing!”

When Imelda recited the blessing and handed Miguel the marigold petal, the boy was consumed by a storm of flowers. He had returned to the Land of the Living. They waited and waited, Héctor trying to hold on for as long as he could until he suddenly felt no pain. His bones stopped glowing. Coco remembered him.

The Rivera family skeletons walked with Riku and Mickey to the marigold bridge before the sun had fully risen. They worried that they would be stuck on the side of death, but Mickey assured them that they would be okay. Riku nodded with a calm smile.

Something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. Red and black clothes and chestnut-brown spiky hair. Dejected cerulean eyes. In his hands, there was a photo. The silver-haired wielder tried to see who would be in the photo, but Imelda and Héctor commanded his attention.

“Even though the circumstances were _muy extraño, muchas gracias, mis amigos_ ,” Héctor gratefully said.

“Y-You’re welcome,” Riku replied. “Can you excuse me? I…”

He looked back at who he thought was a familiar face only to find that he was gone. Mickey looked up at him.

“It was our pleasure and duty to help you guys,” he happily said. “Sorry to leave so soon, but we’ve got more trouble a-brewin’. But we’ll be back to visit before ya know it!”

“You are welcome any time,” Imelda said.

Mickey took Riku’s hand. They gave their goodbyes to the Rivera family before being beamed up into the gummi ship when the skeletons turned around.

**Author's Note:**

> (NOMURA, PLEASE HIRE ME.)


End file.
